Of the two, I think Elk is better. Farmhand takes up your turn 1 and 2 to ramp to 4 on turn 3. Elk takes up your entire turn 2 and part of your turn 3 to ramp to 5 on turn 4. However, Elk still lets you cast Sol Ring Skullclamp, Top, etc. on turn 1 while the Farmhand doesn't. It also still lets you cast a two drop on turn 3 (when you activate it) so you can still cast other things so it is really only taking up 1 full turn.
Another thing to keep in mind is that recurring each one means that later in the game, Farmhand costs more mana than Dawntreader to do the same thing.
Note that I have never run the Farmhand and Dawntreader is seeing less play in my decks due to needing to take up two turns (or, at least, 1.5 turns as it still lets me cast things on turn 3).
It does depend on what you need more; a strong turn 3 or a strong turn 1 and turn 4. If your deck has a lot of value on the 4-drop slot, the Farmhand is going to be worth more for your deck. If constant reanimation is a consideration the Elk becomes better. But yeah, the curve is a thing to keep in mind. A commander at CMC 4 will always prefer the Farmhand.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Of the two, I think Elk is better. Farmhand takes up your turn 1 and 2 to ramp to 4 on turn 3. Elk takes up your entire turn 2 and part of your turn 3 to ramp to 5 on turn 4. However, Elk still lets you cast Sol Ring Skullclamp, Top, etc. on turn 1 while the Farmhand doesn't.
If you're in white, it also has a better synergy with Sun Titan. Or in Kresh, you can sac it (and its cousin Steve) later to put two +1/+1 counters on Kresh instead of one.
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Elk is unless you for some reason need a specific CMC synergy like Ranger of Eos or Yisan. Holding up 1 mana on someone else's turn is easier than two.
If you think you're likely to always hit a turn 1 untapped green source and a turn 2 untapped mana source, maybe the Farmhand is better if you're planning to sac it immediately most of the time.
Bigger question to me is why you need so many ramp creatures that you're getting to a point where you need these in addition to existing options, but only need one of these. What is the rest of the deck?
How big of a deal is recursion here? Obviously Elk wins on that end because he's cheaper to feed back in. Otherwise I kinda prefer Farmhand to establish a blocker earlier but smarter people than me have done the mana math and claim it favours Elk, so there's that too
I've been playing the elk in Karador for awhile now and when I looked at the druid it just seemed better. I don't run too many 1 drops (I have 3 other 1 drops, about half of my lands are tap lands though) and reanimating druid with Karador costs the same as elk. I do run other reanimation effect like animate dead and sun titan.
I guess a big thing to consider would be the CMC of the general and the costs of it's activated abilities, etc., - but in a vacuum yeah I suppose it's Elk
Neither of them are particularly good cards IMO, even for a recursion centric deck. There's just so much better ramp available in EDH. That said, I'd lean towards the farmhand - having the extra mana T3 instead of T4 is a pretty significant plus for me.
Diligent Farmhand
Dawntreader Elk
Lets assume Muscle Burst is not relevant.
Another thing to keep in mind is that recurring each one means that later in the game, Farmhand costs more mana than Dawntreader to do the same thing.
Note that I have never run the Farmhand and Dawntreader is seeing less play in my decks due to needing to take up two turns (or, at least, 1.5 turns as it still lets me cast things on turn 3).
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Or! Or!
t1: Forest (or forest original dual/shock), Arbor Elf or Birds of Paradise or Llanowar Elves (or some equivalent) or Elves of Deep Shadow or Noble Hierarch or Avacyn's Pilgrim or Boreal Druid or Wild Growth
t2: Another land that doesn't ETB tapped (must tap for green if your dork doesn't), Dawntreader Elk, sac to get basic land
t3: Five mana
If you're in white, it also has a better synergy with Sun Titan. Or in Kresh, you can sac it (and its cousin Steve) later to put two +1/+1 counters on Kresh instead of one.
Steve is of course better than Elk most of the time, though. (Exceptions: If you've been hit with Curse of Death's Hold, an opponent controls Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Night of Souls' Betrayal is out, or you're playing Heartless Summoning.)
On phasing:
If you think you're likely to always hit a turn 1 untapped green source and a turn 2 untapped mana source, maybe the Farmhand is better if you're planning to sac it immediately most of the time.
Bigger question to me is why you need so many ramp creatures that you're getting to a point where you need these in addition to existing options, but only need one of these. What is the rest of the deck?
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
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